Page 65 of Taken by Moonlight

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For lunch,I dined with Dante, Alex and Gabriel at the Bucking Bronc Café, the roughhewn, cafeteria-style restaurant on the ranch that served the cowboys working the Bar B Q. We spent an hour eating, laughing, talking about the ranch, about the work Alex had done. Dante asked if I was happy in myjob.

I just laughed and told him it was apaycheck.

It wasn’t hard to miss the glances he exchanged withAlex.

After lunch, Gabriel excused himself to oversee a patrol and installation of security cameras on the pack’s furthest perimeters. Alex needed to return to work, but I wanted to see the rest of thepack.

And I’d promised Felicia I’d watch her team rehearse theplay.

Dante had explained that ten of the pack’s teenagers and seven tweens had gathered to rehearse. The barn served as a terrific littletheater.

Felicia, Dante’s sister, directed. Standing atop a hay bale, she shouted directions from a megaphone. I sat on another hay bale, the audience for thisrehearsal.

They’d been rehearsing for two weeks, she informed meproudly.

She had written the play as well. Romeo the werewolf and Juliet the human, a tale of hope of two-species crossed lovers. A tall, gangly teen played a love-struck wolf staring at Juliet, who stood in the loft, which would serve as abalcony.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Dante enter the barn, check the tack, make some notes on a tablet. Inventory? Maybe. But why do it himself when he had assistants who ran the ranch while he was inCheyenne?

“But soft! What sunrise through the barn breaks? It is the yeast…” Romeowarbled.

“East,” Felice yelled back, staring at the script in herhand.

“Yo, right, east. And Juliet the skin is themoon.”

Puzzled, I glanced at Felicity. “The moon? Not thesun?”

She shrugged. “We’re wolves. We run with themoon.”

Romeo continued. “Arise, silver moon, and let us see your fair skin, and chase the sun, whose day isdone.”

It rhymed. Of asort.

I saw Dante draw closer, and scowl. Maybe he didn’t care for theclassics.

“Oh my lady, and my love, whose pale white breasts are soft as a dove!” Romeoscreeched.

I flushed. Ok, maybe this was a warped werewolf version ofShakespeare.

“Whose pale skin is soft as a dove, Simon! Not breasts!” Felicia yelled through her megaphone. “Don’t you know your lines bynow?!”

“Will you stop that caterwauling?” Dante shouted atFelice.

The entire cast fellsilent.

The papers rustled in her hands as she lowered them, staring at her brother. Her lower lip wobbledprecariously.

The other kids lowered their gazes and stopped talking. One or twotrembled.

Damn. My temper sailed out of control. Fisting my hands, taking a deep breath, I approached Dante and jabbed my finger in hischest.

“Cool your jets, alpha. They were having fun. It’s a Saturday. And this is a barn, not your office, so stop yelling atthem.”

Dante narrowed his gaze and scowled at me. The primitive part of me shrank back, but I knew if I allowed him to intimidate me, our relationship would be over. Because long ago, I’d vowed to always stand my ground against people, and shifters, who tried to controlme.

He got close. Real close, not the kind of close where he wanted to stroke and kiss me, but the aggressive close. Shoulders tense, he spoke in a low voice. I could almost see the hairs on his day beard bristle withrage.